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From Autoimmune Struggles to Optimal Health: The Lessons, The Roadmap & The Formula - Episode 258 · Gladden Longevity Podcast

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But from a standpoint, we do a lot of interviewing.
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Hang on.
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Welcome, everybody, to this edition of the Gladden Longevity Podcast.
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I'm your host, Dr.
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Jeffrey Gladden, and I'm here with Dr.
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Daniel Chang, PharmD, and Alexander Kidd, not a PharmD.
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So, guys, welcome to the show.
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We're excited to have a conversation with you.
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You've been doing a lot of really interesting interviews, I know, with many, many people that are kind of...
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in the healthcare space, the functional medicine space, the longevity space, the health and life optimization space.
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And I think it'd be really fun to first kind of get to know you a little bit individually and then kind of learn from you kind of what you've been learning.
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So maybe Daniel, maybe we'll start with you since you're on the left side of my screen here and we go left to right as we read.
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So anyway, Daniel, tell us a little bit about yourself.
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You have a PharmD.
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So that means you were involved with pharma at some point, but now you're on a different trajectory.
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Maybe you can share with us kind of how that happened.
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Yeah, for sure.
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So it's interesting.
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I was very sick as a child and I spent a couple weeks in the hospital after I was born.
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And then, you know, seeing seeing of doctors, a lot of skin issues, energy, fatigue, fatigue And so I went into...
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your entire childhood?
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I mean, does that start like when you were three years old or five years old or two years old or 12 years old or when did that kind of kick in?
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Yeah, I think when my mom always tells me when I was born, I was like very low percentile weight wise and was very sick.
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So they had to put me in an incubator for a little bit.
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And then when I came out of the hospital, I had skin problems and I had asthma.
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So I'd say since I was born and it's kind of been up and down ever since, and then just getting worse and worse into my teens then twenties.
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So you would get the flu, get colds, stuff like that easily?
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Is that what you're saying?
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Kind of like an immunocompromised scenario or?
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Exactly, yeah, so I would be very sensitive to things like dust and then anytime I was overactive, let's say I went on a hike or I wanted to lift weights, if I over exerted
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myself I would end up with flu symptoms for the next three to five days.
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Interesting.
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Okay.
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Yeah, that's interesting.
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So your immune system is both hyperactive and also kind of hyper responsive in a way that we know that exercise in general tends to transiently depress the immune system for most
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people, but then it sort of bounces back stronger, right?
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Just like other systems in the body.
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So it's interesting in your case, it kind of got depressed, but then sort of stayed depressed.
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So it's kind of almost like the whole thing is hypersensitive in any direction, right?
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the allergies, the asthma, and then also being compromised by exercise and things like that.
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So interesting.
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Yeah, exactly.
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I couldn't make heads or tails of it because I thought that exercising would help me feel better, but then it didn't really if I did too much of it.
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So it was a very weird balance I had to figure out.
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Interesting.
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And how is that for you today?
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Today it's a lot better.
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I think I finally have gotten to the root of it.
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Would love to get your thoughts, you know, as an expert.
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But yeah, I tried everything over the last seven years.
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This diet, that diet, this detox, this product.
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So I think I found the root cause.
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Okay, what'd you find?
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OK, so do you want the short answer or the long answer?
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Let's start with a short answer.
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Short answer is heavy metals, which cause a cascade of all sorts of things.
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Okay, so you had heavy metal toxicity and I suspect that genetically you've probably looked at this and see that you may not detox from heavy metals very efficiently, probably
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some compromise in the detox enzymes as well as glutathione.
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And that led to lots of excess oxidative stress and put a lot of pressure on your whole system, quite honestly.
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Yeah, because from what I understand, metal displaces all sorts of minerals in the body, right?
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And it basically destroys every organ.
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Yeah, it does.
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One of the primary issues with metals is that it does increase oxidative stress in the body, which to your point starts to destroy other systems.
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Right.
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So and what it does is we have a natural defense against that.
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But when you overwhelm the system, right, it's kind of like then all of a sudden, you know, you can have waiters in a restaurant, but they can handle 50 people.
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But when they have 500 people.
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The whole system falls apart.
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And so that's kind of the analogy for you as to what happened in a way.
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Yeah.
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So how are you getting the metals?
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They can come from lots of sources.
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You can breathe them, you can drink them, you can eat them.
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Yeah, so I did eat a lot of tuna as a kid, but I believe the main, yeah, which is tons of mercury, and I believe the main cause was an amalgam filling that I got removed.
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Okay.
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So interesting.
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So then.
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You figured out that mercury was an issue, maybe other metals as well.
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So then you probably had the amalgam removed and put in a difference.
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Beautiful.
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then I waited three to six months before I started chelating, which is what I did next.
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And then I basically did, I think I've done like 50, 60 rounds of ALA and DMSA according to Andrew Cutler's protocol.
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It was pretty hard, pretty intense.
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Yeah.
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Yep.
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the route of IV chelation or, you know, even the oral protocols, you're pushing a lot of stuff out through the kidneys, which
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can have its own stress, right?
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And so you can be doing a good thing, but actually aggravating the stress.
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Whereas with a sauna, we really, we excrete through three things.
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We excrete through the urine, the stool, and the skin, right?
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So getting it out through the skin, good amount of surface area, and sweating comes out naturally, but at a slower pace.
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And we find that to be amazingly effective.
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It just takes a little bit of time.
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three, four, six months, but also much gentler on the system.
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So yeah.
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I can testify for myself that sauna definitely helps because there's been nights where I haven't been able to sleep because I've been so itchy.
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But once I get in the sauna, it actually makes the itching worse, you know, for a little bit.
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But then once you sweat it all out, you're able to calm it down.
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So it's a great, great method.
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I would like to ask you a question since we're on the topic.
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A lot of people when we...
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content about saunas, they say that you don't really excrete toxins through the skin.
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I think that's like the general public's opinion.
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But they just may not be aware of.
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So like, is there studies showing...
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is.
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It depends on what the toxin is, right?
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So you're not going to get rid of viruses through the skin necessarily.
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You know, some of the some of the things end up being bound inside the body, and it's more difficult to actually get them out without doing something more dramatic.
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But in general, for most things, it's actually a really good way to detox.
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So that's kind of how we tend to think about it.
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But.
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can you share some of the photos of your skin detoxing?
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Yeah, we don't know if we want to sicken your audience, doctor, but.
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that's all right.
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This is all audio only.
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So we're going to see it and describe it.
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but yeah.
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So the other person, chatting here is Alexander Kidd, who, is also, works, they work together.
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Daniel and Alex work together.
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Basically they were on a mission to, as I said, really kind of uncover from experts around the world, the way to optimize life, longevity, health.
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performance, et cetera.
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So maybe before you show your pictures, Daniel, Alex, do you want to tell us a little bit about how you got into this?
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I know you've been a lifelong devotee of things.
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a similar origin story as Daniel, right?
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And, you know, from a young age, You know, when my mother gave birth, the hospital was on strike.
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And I only give this backstory because I don't know if it really has any issue with-, you know, any correlation to me being ill.
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But, you know, they didn't autoclave the instruments.
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She got some type of virus disease, whatever.
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She went into a coma for a week.
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They had to remove me.
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And that's kind of where it started.
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At six months old, I had very heavy asthma.
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It was so bad that I got stuck in Argentina for about a year until I was well enough to get on a plane to come back to the States.
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And from there, that's just my story of constant hospitalization, constant antibiotics, whether it's strep throat or whether- I had a collapsed lung at some point, so I was
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hospitalized as well.
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And that was basically my youth, was always being sick with one thing or another, asthma attacks.
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At the time, they didn't really have nebulizers and things like that.
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But as that started to be introduced, a lot of Prednisone for inflammation, a lot of Albuterol.
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steroid is what he's referring to just for the audience.
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Prednisone is a steroid.
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You may know that, but it basically blocks inflammation, but then has a lot of negative side effects to it also, if you use it chronically.
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So anyway, sorry to interrupt you, but just to make sure.
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cataracts from, you know, and remember I'm just pushing 50, right?
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And I've had cataracts for the last 15 years because most likely attributed to the Prednisone, right?
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So, you know, as that went on, as I got older, I just kept adding autoimmune disease after autoimmune disease, you know, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis,
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sinusitis, you know, and on and on and on.
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And this was like, you know, again,
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collecting these diseases are not fun, especially at a young age.
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Remember, I'm still under 20 at this point, when this stuff is happening to me.
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By the time I was 30, I was in a wheelchair for a short period of time because the psoriatic arthritis was so bad, I couldn't even stand up.
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My hips, my knees were like totally blown out.
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Until I met this doctor, Dr.
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Majid Ali, he was a pathologist turned naturopath.
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You know, I'm on, at this point, I'm mean as guy, I'm on Methotrexate, right?
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Getting tested monthly.
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basically blocks the immune system activity.
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All this autoimmune disorders are typically treated by drugs that will suppress immune system activity.
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And the side effect is it makes you more vulnerable to infection, but it tends to calm down the over excitement of the immune system, if you will, with regards to all the
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autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, et cetera.
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So, then from there, they moved me on to Enbrel, right, with what, subdermal injection.
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And, you know, I said to myself, "I'm 30 years old and I'm 30% better." And the doctor's telling me, "well, that's pretty good prognosis, you know?" And he's like, "but by the
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way, don't kiss anybody, don't get a tattoo, wash your hands 30 times a day because you may die from catching another disease." And I thought to myself, 'how am I going to live
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another 30, 40, 50, 60 years on this planet,
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you know, in this condition, right?' So, after meeting Dr.
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Ali, he said to me, I'll never forget this...
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The first question he asked me is like, "Are you addicted to sugar?" And I said to him, "No." He goes, "Great.
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For the next 30 days, no dairy, no wheat, no sugar." I said, "No problem." I was like, "But I can have strawberries.
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I get -" "No, no, no, no sugar whatsoever." I don't think I lasted five hours, you know?
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And that's when I realized the world I was living.
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And then from there,
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it just became an issue of cleaning up my diet, right?
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And that mission continued to go on as, you know, I thought I was healthy at 30 but I wasn't, then learning more and more about diet, then learning more and more about these,
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these drugs that I was taking and whatnot.
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And, you know, Dr.
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Ali promised me, he's like, "Within 30 to 60 days", he was, "I'm going to get you off all these drugs." And he did.
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Right?
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And that was the first piece of it was the diet, right?
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Learning that then, you know,
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This is a great point for the audience to understand that when you have autoimmunity, the first place to look, there's really kind of two things that we look at is one is the diet,
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the second is the gut, right?
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So, sort of simultaneously is what we're looking at.
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But the diet is massive here because the immune system, particularly if you're eating the same thing all the time, or even if you're not,
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if the immune system is set up in a way where it's sensitive to wheat or gluten or gliadin or any of the proteins that are actually inside wheat, it doesn't even have to be gluten,
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right?
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There's like s- 35 other proteins in there.
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You know, egg whites, there's many, many proteins that you can be allergic to.
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So, really cleaning up the diet and doing comprehensive testing to see where are, you know, where's the safe path here?
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What can I actually eat so that I'm not activating the immune system,
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becomes part of the equation here.
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So, super important to go down that path.
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Interesting.
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Yeah.
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So, that brought me to about 95 % functionality.
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I still didn't have that last 5%.
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Now you fast forward a few...
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What was missing?
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So, you know, it's, it's an interesting question because, you know, Daniel and I are still on this quest, right?
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To, to, to bridge that gap of that 5%.
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And I'm not sure, but I know in the last year, I've made massive strides in that last 5%, right?
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Where, you know, further cleaning up the diet, further doing tons of testing for heavy metals, chemicals, glyphosate, fungus, you know, all this other stuff, then finding out
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that, that I am toxic in certain ways that
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I never realized before, right?
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And, you know...
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So, do I still have a little bit of psoriasis?
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Yes.
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Does my UC ever flare up?
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No, but underlying, when you do biopsy, it's still there, right?
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So, these are the things I'm saying.
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Like, I don't feel 100%.
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UC is Ulcerative Colitis, just to remind the audience, this is an inflammatory bowel disease he's referring to here.
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So, yeah.
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Go ahead.
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then that brought us on this journey of microbiome, right?
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Where, like, over the last two months, I did a test on my microbiome and got a custom blend, which I think is making strides as well for me.
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I'm feeling much better, right?
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Also, you know, I've always tested myself saying, 'How's my vitamin C?' 'How's my, you know, my vitamin D?' You know, standard things, but doing deep dives into really looking
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at testing and figuring out- Not just taking
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multivitam or blindly taking vitamins.
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Taking vitamins for your deficiencies.
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So, that's also made a huge stride.
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right.
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Yep.
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Yeah.
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This is what you're talking about is precision, which is really what we kind of practice here at Gladden Longevity and continue to expand on, you know, every day, every week is
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how do we actually understand somebody deeply?
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Because before you can start to propose solutions, which when you went to your doctor, 'You have psoriasis.
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Okay.
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Here's our answer.
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We're going to give you, you know, Methotrexate or Enbrel to, basically, calm your immune system.'
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But there's no deconstruction of the problem to actually understand what is causing this, right?
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And so, what we like to do, and I think what you guys have discovered as well and are validating for yourselves is that it's so, so, so important to fully deconstruct the
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problem as thoroughly as possible and to continue that because new testing comes up, new capabilities come up
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things like that.
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So, this mindset of 'I want to deconstruct myself as completely as possible so I can have the best solutions going forward.' That's kind of the mindset that you've come into, which
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is really the mindset that anybody that's interested in health and longevity, I think, should adopt.
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So, kudos to you guys.
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You've both kind of fought through a hard path to get to that point.
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So, that's very cool.
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Yeah.
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And I think a big part of it was, is, you know, I met Daniel, we were both marketers, we were both, you know, health driven in the health space.
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And, you know, we learned all this stuff, I guess, by accident, by researching, by meeting, you know, great people like you.
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And we said, you know, how do we democratize this information and get it out to the rest of the world?
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And that's really our basis.
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And what, why we do this is that we want to make sure that everyone else does not suffer the way we did, or worse yet, you know, slowly kill themselves.
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but to never realize that there actually is a way to be healthy.
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Because nowadays people think being healthy means being rich to be able to afford this medication or whatever.
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And that's not the path, man.
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We've lived for thousands of years.
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We've made it here as human beings.
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But yet now is when we need all this stuff?
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Doesn't make sense to me.
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so I'll just, I'll just add that, you know, when you're looking at getting healthy, people are always looking at, well, what should I take?
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What should I do?
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What should I add?
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But quite honestly, the first thing to do is what should I remove?
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Right.
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The first thing is what should I remove both from the diet, from the toxins, from the metals, from, you know, so really if you're, if you're listening to this and you're, and
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you're not doing well,
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The first question to ask in this deconstruction issue is what's in there that I need to get out or need to stop putting in, right?
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And then the question becomes, okay, now what can I add that will actually help me in a very precise way?
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Like which vitamin do I actually need?
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Which mineral do I actually need?
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So that you can do it in a precise way and you're only able to get to that when you kind of go through this deconstruction process to understand it.
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So yeah, cool.
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and I can testify to that because, you know, there's so much going on in our bodies and in our lives that it's hard to really narrow down what's causing what.
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So I, myself, what I did was I cut, I cut out everything in my diet.
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I limited it to maybe three or four things.
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I think I had like sweet potato and broccoli and beans or something at one point.
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and.
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And then I saw how I reacted to that.
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Then I added other things and then I added more.
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And then when you really reduce things down as simple as possible, you see the effect of every single item.
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That's right.
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Yeah, that's right too.
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And I think, I think it's easy to not trim it down all the way.
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And then it's easy to get a little ambitious when you feel good again and start adding in six other things and you don't know which two or three of those are actually re
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-triggering stuff, right?
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So a lot of wisdom and being a little bit slow and methodical in the way you kind of reintroduce things.
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So cool.
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also important to highlight here is, you know, Daniel and I both suffer from autoimmune disorders, which are similar in nature, but I feel like our root causes are completely
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different, right?
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Yeah.
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Have you done the genetics to look at all that?
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We haven't gotten there yet.
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OK, so we should definitely do that for you guys.
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You should swing down to Dallas when you come down and let us do some stuff to deconstruct this further for you, because that will be super helpful, quite honestly.
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Yeah, yeah, that'd be great.
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Let's do that.
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genetics, what do you mean?
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Because we've looked at methylation.
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Like, is that part of that?
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yeah, I mean, when you do your genetics, there's when you say the word methylation now in the longevity space can be one of two things, right?
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Can be looking at DNA methylation, which is basically a pattern of adding these carbons with three hydrogens onto the DNA that either activates a gene or deactivates a gene.
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So that's DNA methylation.
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Then you can talk about the methylation cycle, which is the genetics that are involved in the genes that are actually performing.
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methylation in the body and many, many, many people, myself included, have issues with that methylation cycle.
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And everybody talks about one particular gene, MTHFR, which needs methylfolate as opposed to just folic acid in order to function properly.
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But it's much more complicated than that.
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There's about seven or eight different things in the methylation cycle that need to be deconstructed.
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Those genes need to be looked at.
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And then getting the right amount of B12, the right amount of B6, the right amount of creatine, the right amount of
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other things as well as methylfolate to optimize that methylation process, which is basically how you're both detoxing, making melatonin, making neurotransmitters.
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It's kind of a central process to many, many processes in the body.
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So getting that one right is super important.
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So when we talk about genetics, we're talking about what are the genes inside the methylation cycle?
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What are the genes related to autoimmunity?
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What are the genes related to?
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cardiovascular disease to dementia to thyroid optimization, how people respond to different statins drugs or how they, you know, do they have issues with detox genes that
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aren't working properly and particularly which ones of those are not working properly?
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Because the interesting thing is that when you deconstruct at a genetic level, which is really kind of the foundational level, right?
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And you guys are, it's interesting, you're kind of like miners, you're kind of like
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like strip mining your way down to genetics, right?
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So when you get down to that level, you're really now at the base level, right?
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This is my genetic code.
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And then the issue becomes, okay, well, how do I actually modify my genetic expression?
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Because the genes are not fixed.
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They can either be activated or deactivated.
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They can be up -regulated or down -regulated.
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And so once you actually understand that,
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And you start to play the piano here, right?
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It's like, okay, well, let's up -regulate this and down -regulate that because that's going to have an impact on this, which will have an impact on that.
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And it starts to work its way up to the different strata that you guys have already worked through becomes foundational.
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So that's how we think about it.
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if that helps.
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Definitely, yeah, thank you.
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Are you ready for my picture, by the way?
23:27
Yeah, I'm ready for your picture.
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I'm standing, but I'm not sitting down, but maybe I should.
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Okay, now you can share.
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wow.
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Yeah, that looks, that looks pretty nasty.
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yeah, very nasty.
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He's showing us a really nasty looking rash on his neck that, you know, it's coming through a video too, but it's really, it's wrapped around his entire neck.
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It almost looked like he has on a turtleneck on the front that kind of goes up on the other side of his face.
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So that's, that's pretty nasty.
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And what, what, what actually was, was causing that?
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Yes, so this was when I was on a round of ALA and DMSA.
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so you had a herxheimer reaction and you had a detox reaction from that, right?
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Yeah
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had a 105 fever, I was in bed for a week and shooting nerve pain up and down.
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Yeah.
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So here's the thing.
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When you detox, you can detox too quickly, right?
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Again, you can overwhelm your own system's ability to handle it.
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We see this with ozone saunas and IV ozone treatments.
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You can throw somebody into what's called a Herxheimer reaction where they detox.
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And sometimes, quite honestly, that can be because they actually have really good detox genetics.
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And now you throw this into them and they're detoxing so quickly.
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that they're generating all this stuff.
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It doesn't always have to come from somebody that has poor detox.
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So this is why you really have to understand your genetics before you start doing stuff like this, right?
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And you see how foundational that is.
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So, you know, you guys have kind of stripped, you know, mind your way down to the genetics.
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We actually start with the genetics and build the structure back up like you're building a house, right?
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So.
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I wish we knew you before we started then.
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Could have saved ourselves some health.
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Well, and the funny thing is, is Daniel and I will do different things.
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Is Daniel always takes the hardcore approach, you know, and takes those pills and almost kills himself.
25:21
And then I walk to the sauna and I do the sauna for six months.
25:25
And, you know, again, you know, we all have our own approach, but that's what we do on the show.
25:30
We test this stuff out.
25:31
Yeah.
25:32
Yeah, exactly.
25:33
Well, I love your enthusiasm for this and your ability to try things, because ultimately, even with all the information at hand, it's still let's try this and ease our way into it
25:43
and see how this works.
25:44
It's always that's always going to be part of the equation.
25:46
Right.
25:47
So so, yeah, it's you have to have the mindset of I'm working on this to really deconstruct and really understand it deeply.
25:56
And then I'm working with things that
26:00
are indicated or appear that they should be super helpful, but let's see how they actually work together.
26:06
I'd to share my journey on how I deconstructed it and get feedback on my thinking process.
26:13
So at the time I was getting lots of rashes, very itchy, very tired.
26:19
And so one thing I noticed about myself was I had a very white tongue.
26:24
So pretty obvious, I'm like Candida, that came to mind.
26:27
So I said, okay, the problem is Candida.
26:29
So I went on a Candida diet, cut all sugar and carbs, lost tons of weight.
26:35
said I looked like a cancer patient.
26:37
And it did help temporarily until it didn't anymore.
26:43
And then my symptoms came back.
26:45
So I started to dig even more into what could be the root cause.
26:49
And then I found out that parasites create an environment that is hospitable for Candida.
26:56
Mm -hmm.
26:56
then I said, OK, maybe the parasites are the actual root problem that are causing this cascade.
27:02
So then I went on parasite cleanse, black walnut, clove, all those things, declared the parasites, did tons of enemas.
27:12
And that helped too until the rashes came back.
27:17
And so then I determined, all right, OK, that must not be the root cause.
27:21
So I kept digging and digging.
27:22
And then I realized I've
27:26
that I had this filling and then it clicked in my head because I saw something about how heavy metals actually create a biofilm that protect parasites from being killed.
27:37
So then to me, now I'm stepping one step further.
27:42
So now heavy metals is the root cause that's feeding the parasites, which is then feeding the candida.
27:48
And so if I get rid of metals, then I should be able to clear everything.
27:51
So that's basically been the journey.
27:53
Okay.
27:54
think about that whole process?
27:55
Am I thinking about it properly?
27:57
Yeah, I think you are.
27:59
I think I think you are in our world.
28:02
What we do is we test for all of that up front so that we don't have to work our way through that.
28:08
But we actually see what are the metal loads?
28:11
What is the detox capability?
28:12
What's the parasite load?
28:13
You know, what's the what's the gut SIBO overgrowth?
28:17
What's the the small intestinal yeast overgrowth?
28:21
Right.
28:21
Do you have candida?
28:22
Do you have fungus?
28:23
We have testing now that.
28:25
enables us to with looking at DNA in the blood to identify over 2000 different infections that you will that you would never find any other way.
28:39
Yeah, it's super interesting, right?
28:42
And so when you come across a situation like this, where somebody has all this autoimmunity going on, it's so important to deconstruct it as completely as possible right
28:54
from the get go.
28:55
Because otherwise you keep working through these layers that are partially working but not totally working.
29:00
If you just can lay it all out to begin with, it's like, okay, well here's 16 things we need to go after, let's start to go after them, right?
29:08
And you kind of build it from the ground up as opposed from the top down.
29:11
So that would be my only comment on the process.
29:15
That if we had worked together from the beginning, that's how we would have done it.
29:18
And quite honestly, we have more capability this week.
29:22
than we did three weeks ago in our ability to do that, right?
29:25
Because in our practice, we're constantly asking the questions, as you know, how good can you be?
29:30
How do you make 100 to new 30?
29:31
You know, how do you live young for a lifetime?
29:33
And how do you crack the code on 120, right?
29:35
Live well beyond 120.
29:36
So when those questions are at the forefront, we're constantly finding new things to do that are helpful in the deconstruction and in the therapeutic process.
29:45
So anyway, that's the deal.
29:47
Yeah.
29:48
So you've been chatting with a lot of people.
29:51
And I think you've learned a lot of things in this democratization, which I really, we're doing this podcast as a democratization of, you know, things that we have come to
29:59
understand and want to share, or people like you have to share.
30:02
So what are some of the other things that you have come across that you found to be helpful from the, from the guests that you've interviewed on your podcast?
30:12
You know, Daniel and I are two people that are very willing to admit we're wrong and very willing to change our path, right?
30:20
We're never going to fight, fight for a side, right?
30:22
And I think that's what makes us very unique.
30:25
you know, we started off, you know, having a certain type of diet moved into another diet, moved into another diet, right?
30:33
You know, Daniel tried keto, this and that, you know, right now we're, we're walking on this line about being vegan and not being vegan, right?
30:39
And understanding because, you know,
30:41
When I went vegan, I saw a huge change in my autoimmune disorders.
30:47
But, you know, looking back now, was it because I just had a much cleaner diet or was it the vegan diet that did it?
30:52
Right.
30:53
Because I know that like, you know, being vegan long -term has issues with possibly Alzheimer's.
30:58
Right.
30:58
There are other issues because you're not getting your full B's and stuff like that.
31:01
And when I look at, you know, you know, this voyage we're on as a human being, you know, we're all about longevity, right?
31:08
You're about longevity, our channel's about longevity and
31:11
You know, it ties into every other piece, right?
31:14
So also uncovering, you know, what are the optimal ways to be a human being, not just avoiding the microplastics and the glyphosates and all this other stuff, right?
31:25
So I think that's another piece.
31:27
a second.
31:28
You just hang on for a sec.
31:30
You just pause your, your internet's gone in and out a few times.
31:33
I don't know what you're on exactly, but you stopped out.
31:37
You stopped when, said something about, going off something or what, what was the phrase?
31:44
Where was he?
31:47
So, you know, being able to understand the basics of longevity.
31:55
Is it freezing again?
31:57
Yeah, you just froze again.
32:01
So what I was saying is, you know, being on this journey of doing our best to understand the basics.
32:07
rough.
32:12
I don't know, this thing's being a nightmare right now.
32:14
Yeah, same thing.
32:15
We lost you again, as soon as you started to talk.
32:18
So maybe what we'll do is just put you on hold.
32:19
Daniel, can you pick up a little bit and just talk through that?
32:23
What he was about to say?
32:24
You probably know well enough what he's talking about.
32:27
so he was saying, yeah, when it comes to all the things that we're learning, we're basically incorporating them into our life, you know, vegan versus carnivore and like
32:40
trying to find that balance between everything.
32:42
hmm.
32:42
That's right.
32:43
And the interesting thing is everybody that you speak will make a case for their particular view.
32:48
Right.
32:48
Like and I think this is one of the problems.
32:52
You know, when you jump on YouTube and everybody's talking about, well, if you take these five supplements, you're going to live forever.
32:57
If you want to reverse your age by 20 years, take these two things or do this one exercise or whatever it is.
33:03
Right.
33:03
And I, you know, I I smile at that.
33:06
I look at it from the standpoint, maybe there's something here that that's that's helpful.
33:09
I look at it and it's like, OK.
33:11
But at the end of the day, it really if people are really going to do this, they're going to need to deconstruct and then reconstruct.
33:19
And I think, you know, the fact that you're trying these different things as people come in and say, well, it's all about being carnivores, all about being vegan, it's all about
33:27
being nutrient dense, it's all about being pescatarian, it's all about, you know, whatever Mediterranean.
33:34
It really that's all fine and well, but it really boils down to what works for you.
33:38
And so you can actually figure out some of that.
33:41
based on genetic testing and immune system testing as to what's going to work for you.
33:48
So anyway, interesting.
33:50
Yeah.
33:51
me try to recap this if it's better again.
33:54
you know, the thing we learned is that there's no magic bullet, right?
33:58
And although stem cell research is happening and there are a lot of breakthroughs, you know, everything you need to be healthy and live long is in the palm of your hand.
34:08
It's here today.
34:09
And it's basically free, right?
34:12
Sure.
34:13
There's those needle movers that may add another couple of years to the end of your life or, you know, help you get there, but
34:18
without basics of good mental clarity, good clean diet, good healthy, I don't wanna say exercise, but movement, community, right?
34:28
These basic fundamentals that everybody has access to, that's the key to longevity.
34:34
That's what we've learned at least, thus far.
34:36
And I think, I think you're right, particularly when you, when you measure it against the blue zones, right?
34:42
When you look at all the different elements that are present in the blue zones.
34:46
and when you look at their diet, it's very nutrient dense.
34:49
They're getting lots of, lots of things, that we don't ordinarily get, for example, in Sardinia, they have very high levels of, a new essential fatty acid called C 15.
35:02
which turns out, they have.
35:04
It makes up a percentage of our red blood cell membrane.
35:07
The membrane is made out of lipids, right?
35:09
The cell membrane is made out of fats.
35:11
And so it's a small percentage of the membrane that's made out of these fats.
35:16
But in the blue zones, 0 .4 to 0 .6 % of that fat is the C15.
35:26
In normal healthy populations, it's 0 .2 to 0 .4.
35:30
But in many of the people that we test, it's down at
35:33
0 .1 or 0 .09 or 0 .06.
35:37
Right.
35:38
And this correlates directly with longevity, right, because it actually is more powerful than rapamycin in terms of promoting longevity to have elevated C -15 levels.
35:47
And it's really interesting.
35:48
And you get it from dairy.
35:49
And yet we know that so many people don't do well with dairy.
35:53
They actually they actually get it in Sardinia from eating cheeses that are high in C -15.
35:58
But then we have so many people that can't eat dairy.
36:01
Right.
36:01
So
36:02
being able to know what your C15 levels are and optimize them becomes really, really important.
36:07
So my point is that, yes, all those basics are important, but there really is another layer that can really boost that, I think, significantly, if you understand it.
36:16
And to your point about stem cells, I think if we're really going to crack the code here, there's going to have to be regeneration.
36:23
It's not going to be enough to have a healthy, super healthy lifestyle because everybody that did that still got older.
36:30
Right.
36:30
And so to rejuvenate, right, either by DNA methylation, rejuvenation, stem cell rejuvenation.
36:37
There are many, many tools now that we're using to do that.
36:40
Right.
36:41
So young plasma and embryonic cell factors, which calm the immune system beautifully, quite honestly.
36:46
So there's lots of things that can be done on the regeneration rejuvenation side.
36:50
And I think coupling that with a super clean diet and lifestyle.
36:55
And I think the mental space, the psycho spiritual space.
36:59
optimizing that, I think then you really have your best shot at living your best life.
37:09
Yeah, to add to that, yeah, I really do agree that the body is amazing and it can, if you get out of the way, it can do everything it needs to, to heal itself.
37:19
But it's just that we're so overloaded with toxins that the cards have stacked against us.
37:25
So it makes it really, really hard.
37:28
Yeah, it's a good, it's a really good point that you make up because we live in a toxic environment, right?
37:34
It's a very toxic environment.
37:35
Trying to get clean air, clean water, clean food, nutrient -intense food is a very hard thing to do.
37:43
And the other thing that I think pollutes us is toxic thoughts, right?
37:47
I've kind of come down to the realization that
37:50
That all of life really kind of boils down to one thing, if you will, which is how you optimize your nervous system, which is, you know, the decisions you make, what you choose
37:59
to eat, how you think, how you feel, how you respond, how you connect.
38:03
If you optimize how you move, if you optimize your nervous system, right.
38:07
And think about going through life as I'm here to optimize my nervous system, right.
38:12
Then everything else will sort of flow from that.
38:15
And so that's become sort of my centerpiece.
38:17
I'm a cardiologist by training, but I've had to
38:19
Leave the heart, the heart's important, but the nervous system is the ticket.
38:23
So yeah.
38:24
The mindset is, like I said, if we can take the top five things that experts have taught us on the show, mindset's always the number one thing, for sure.
38:33
Yeah.
38:34
Yeah.
38:35
Beautiful.
38:35
nervous system, we've been working with a doctor who I think for the first month, all he talked to us about was breathing.
38:43
And I didn't understand at the time because all he did was five five breathing every day, 20 minutes at a time.
38:50
And it didn't make any sense.
38:52
But after doing it, I saw how it started to rebalance my nervous system.
38:56
And then that started to affect my digestion and energy and everything.
39:03
So, yeah.
39:05
Right.
39:06
That's right.
39:06
because Daniel was sleeping 12 hours and I was sleeping four.
39:09
Again, we're like polar opposites.
39:11
And I came into the seven and a half hours and I don't know how he's doing, but you know, you know, again, yeah.
39:18
to normal hours, yeah.
39:19
interesting, right?
39:20
So it's just for the audience to understand.
39:23
It's one thing to focus on all these things.
39:25
Well, what should I eat and do and exercise, all this stuff.
39:28
But really, if you sort of look at the meta analysis of all this is really to optimize your nervous system, then all these other things sort of flow out of that.
39:36
And that's a really cool thing, I think.
39:40
So yeah.
39:41
Well, you know, I, yeah, go ahead.
39:44
the audience is that the tools are within their grasp.
39:47
That's the whole thing that we want people to understand.
39:51
Yeah.
39:52
Yeah.
39:52
And I think that's a great message.
39:53
And I think it, you know, it doesn't it does take some money to do some of this testing for sure.
39:58
And those prices are coming down.
40:01
But to Alex's point, you can do so much and there's so much available, you know, just, you know, listening to stuff and trying some things.
40:10
Right.
40:10
So that's that's what you're saying.
40:12
Yeah.
40:14
Cool.
40:14
Very cool.
40:16
To answer your previous question about what are some of the favorite things we've learned from experts, not really silver bullets, but I think things that have been actual needle
40:27
movers for me are one, melatonin, making sure that it's bioidentical, and just taking a tiny, like one milligram, yeah, like tiny, tiny amounts, has really helped, I think, not
40:43
only with sleep, which is what most people think about.
40:45
but it actually chelates heavy metals.
40:48
It actually helps power your mitochondria, all these things.
40:51
So.
40:52
your immune system also and decreases inflammation.
40:55
And I'll tell you something else about melatonin is that melatonin goes down as we age and having higher melatonin feeds a stem cell, a particular stem cell that we have in the
41:06
third ventricle, in the lower lateral wall of the third ventricle of the brain by the hypothalamus.
41:11
And that's believed that those stem cells are actually controlling the aging process because those stem cells are sending out signals, exosomes to the body.
41:19
keeping them youthful.
41:20
And when those stem cells start to fade, they can't send out those signals and it accelerates the aging process.
41:26
This has been shown over and over again now in animals and things like that.
41:30
So melatonin actually keeps those stem cells vibrant and alive longer.
41:35
So using melatonin is super healthy for all the reasons you said, but it's also getting at one of the true root causes of aging, if you will.
41:43
So it's really interesting.
41:45
Yeah.
41:45
Wow, very cool.
41:48
Another one is GHK copper peptides.
41:52
I've been using it topically.
41:55
There's also these patches.
41:56
I tested it out for a couple of days.
41:59
Pretty cool, but just topically, I've been using it twice a day.
42:02
And I was starting to get these very deep 11 lines right here.
42:07
You can still see a bit of a remnant of it, but after using it, it made such a dramatic difference in my skin.
42:13
Nice.
42:14
Yeah.
42:15
GHKCU is wonderful for wound healing, skin repair, hair regrowth.
42:20
It's used in that area as well.
42:22
We use it to heal other things too in combination with another peptide, BPC 157 for let's say somebody has a bruised muscle or a broken bone or a tendonitis or, you know, something
42:34
like that or a recent surgery.
42:36
That combination works really, really well to accelerate the healing process.
42:41
So that's, that's very cool.
42:44
And there are patches that supposedly, I think it's, what is it?
42:47
X something 19 patch that will increase GHKCU.
42:52
We've used some of those.
42:54
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
42:56
And then you can get a number of different products now have skin creams that have GHKCU in them that you can get also.
43:03
So yeah, very cool.
43:05
Okay, next.
43:10
Red light?
43:11
That's been a favorite of mine.
43:15
Yeah, so I have a...
43:19
What is it?
43:20
I think a Platinum LED is the company that I bought from.
43:24
Just based upon the tests, it seemed like their output was the best, the wavelengths and the amount of power.
43:30
And it's been great, especially in the winters when you're not getting sun, to just help you feel energized and keep you like...
43:38
Yeah, keep you feeling good.
43:40
And I think it also helps the skin I've noticed.
43:46
My neck here is quite rashy from all the years of the mercury going through.
43:52
I think since it was right here, basically all this whole area, including my sinuses, very, very congested, inflamed.
43:59
And when I do red lights, I notice that things start to mobilize, starts to get itchy.
44:05
And so...
44:06
definitely energizes the cells and helps them detox.
44:09
Yeah, interesting.
44:10
Yeah, it's great.
44:12
It also activates mitochondrial function, which is really good for health.
44:16
Nice.
44:19
Yeah, so something else.
44:24
yeah, when it comes to detoxing, two products that I've used have been really good are Zeolites.
44:31
And I just recently found out about this company.
44:34
They make a micronized chlorella and it's called NDF.
44:42
And those two have been really good as well in helping me detox.
44:47
So zeolites are basically, they're kind of like from clay in the earth really then, and they basically are good binders and will take things out.
44:55
The combination of spirulina and chlorella together is also very good for detox and chlorella on its own is good for detox.
45:02
And this micronized chlorella probably has greater surface area for that.
45:07
One of the other interesting things about spirulina and chlorella together is that they increase genetic expression of a gene called Clotho.
45:16
and you probably have come across Clotho.
45:18
Clotho is basically a gene that's associated with longevity.
45:21
It's associated with improved brain health, heart health, kidney health, blood vessel health, and having optimal Clotho levels, I think is really critical.
45:31
So here, we're able to measure Clotho levels.
45:33
We're able to look at the genetics around Clotho and then put people into situations to optimize their Clotho expression and increase those levels.
45:42
And one of the things that we use to do that is
45:44
a combination of spirulina and chlorella that come in these little tablets, almost like little pellets, like you'd feed a rabbit.
45:50
Just throw those back.
45:52
Thor's Hammer is a good one simply because it's very, very cost efficient.
45:56
There's very expensive ones out there, but Thor's Hammer seems to be a really good price point accessible.
46:03
And we've gone through their process and it's quite, quite good from what we understand.
46:08
So yeah.
46:10
That's great.
46:11
Yeah, I do have some of these tablets here, but yeah.
46:16
But like you said, they're quite pricey.
46:18
So I'll definitely check out Thor's Game Room.
46:21
yeah, those are quite pricey that you have right there, but Thor's Hammer is like a third of the price.
46:26
So and I just also like 14 or 15 of them at a time, right?
46:30
It's and it's also a great source of protein.
46:32
Here's another thing.
46:33
If you were locked in your in your house for your home for, you know, 30 days and all you had was those pellets, you'd walk out of there.
46:41
OK, I mean, it's that nutritionally dense.
46:43
They're amazing.
46:45
Yeah, incredible nutritional support.
46:47
So, yeah.
46:48
Yeah, more protein density than steak per gram.
46:54
Yep.
46:55
Yeah.
46:56
No, they're good stuff.
46:56
Yeah, we like that.
46:58
We put a lot of people on those because of the detox capability.
47:01
It's gentle and yet it's very nourishing.
47:04
Right.
47:05
So, yeah, good.
47:07
Cool.
47:08
Well, you guys are doing great work.
47:09
I really appreciate the work that you're doing, the mission that you're on.
47:13
And we had a chance to meet at a meeting maybe a couple of months ago for the first time.
47:18
I really enjoyed it speaking with you and.
47:20
and having you on this show.
47:22
So that'd be great.
47:25
And yeah, absolutely.
47:26
Yeah, I look forward to connecting with you in Dallas down here.
47:30
So that'd be great.
47:31
Show you what we do and yeah, see what we can do.
47:34
we only had, I think, 20 minutes.
47:36
So it was pretty rushed.
47:37
It was a proper session this time.
47:40
yeah, we can do that.
47:41
I'd be happy to jump on your on your show and we can walk through a whole bunch of stuff.
47:44
So that'd be great.
47:46
Good.
47:46
also, you know, Daniel and I are producing a docu -series, right, where it's gonna be longer format and we're gonna be following, you know, beginning to ends, right?
47:55
Whether they're patients or processes or, you know, doctors like yourself that are doing things.
47:59
So it'd be great to maybe have an episode based on you and what you guys are doing.
48:03
sure.
48:03
We'd love that.
48:04
Yeah, we'd be happy to do that.
48:05
Yeah, we can we can take from A to Z on almost everything.
48:10
So what we find is that each person kind of charts their own path.
48:15
Right.
48:15
And so it's really important.
48:18
I think it's really important to be working if you are working with a physician or nurse practitioner or whomever it is, that they have an open mind, something that I call being
48:29
married to the.
48:31
questions and not the answers, right?
48:33
Because a lot of people will walk in and they've got certain answers on the shelf behind them.
48:36
They're just looking at which one are they going to give to you.
48:39
But this concept of actually deconstructing the problem before you provide a solution, that's who you want to work with because those people are not binary thinkers like, okay,
48:48
here's a problem.
48:48
Here's a solution.
48:49
They're actually quantum thinkers.
48:50
They're looking at, okay, here's a sphere of all possibilities.
48:53
What's going to be the best for this person at this point?
48:55
Where do we start?
48:56
How do we move through it?
48:57
So you want to be working with quantum thinkers.
49:00
which is what you guys are.
49:01
You're looking at this holistically.
49:03
It's not, there's a binary thing and you, you know, the fact that there's no ego involved with this, right?
49:07
That you're willing to admit why we made a mistake.
49:09
We're the same way.
49:10
It's like, we're not perfect, of course, but it's, we're just married to these questions and we want to bring this forward to humanity.
49:17
We want to change the course of aging for the entire planet.
49:20
So working together with guys like you is just, you know, it's just perfect.
49:25
So appreciate that.
49:26
Yeah.
49:29
Cool.
49:30
Yeah, awesome.
49:31
Thanks for being here.
49:32
All right.
49:33
It's great to have a guy like you as a friend, so let's keep in touch and let's get together some more.
49:39
Have a great day.